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Tiffany Blum-Deckler
Tiffany Blum-Deckler is a member of the Fashion Club. She is largely known for her cluelessness. Her surname was established in the MTV websites by Anne D. Bernstein, spinning off the gag of four Tiffany's on a guest list in "The Invitation". Character Overview Tiffany is a member of the Fashion Club of Lawndale High. She is portrayed to be clueless and terminally narcissistic. She speaks with a semi-Valley Girl drawl, and almost always speaks it veeeeerrrryyyyyy ssssslllloooowwwwllllyyyy. She is in many of Quinn Morgendorffer's classes. In "It Happened One Nut", during her second year at Lawndale, Tiffany was doing volunteer work: peer-to-peer social counselling. (She was rubbish.) While she's friends with Quinn, extended one-on-one contact in "Gifted" left neither of them happy - Tiffany's entire plan was to ask if various outfits made her look fat and she got angry when Quinn snapped "you're not freaking fat, okay?" Early Tiffany In her first few episodes in S1, Tiffany actually spoke at normal speed and seemed less clueless. There is never an in-universe reason for the change. (This is mocked by Daria and Jane in Look Back in Annoyance.) She resumes a normal singing speed in "Daria!," presumably just to avoid messing up the songs' rhythm and tempo. In the shooting script for "The Invitation", she is simply called "Popular Girl Two" (Tori Jericho being Popular Girl One and Sandi being named). Presumably, it was only later on that MTV decided to make her into a full character, and gave her one of the names the security guard mentioned to Daria and Jane. Tiffany's Cluelessness It is difficult to exaggerate this character's cluelessness. Many of her scenes in the show deal with this, and it is often used as the basis of the humor in her scenes. Tiffany's cluelessness defines the character and is critical to it. For example, in the episode "It Happened One Nut," where Tiffany, volunteering as a career counselor "to help the socially challenged," is unable to get through what appears to be a simple, written speech that serves as an introduction to the counseling program. In the Season Two episodes "The Daria Hunter" and "Fair Enough," Tiffany switches her loyalties from Sandi Griffin to Quinn at the drop of a hat. This led to speculation in the fan community that perhaps the character wasn't as clueless as she appeared to be, and perhaps was even attempting to take over the Fashion Club by using Quinn as a wedge against Sandi. However, subsequent episodes appear to have indicated that, yes, she really is that dumb. More excellent examples of her cluelessness are found in the episode "Fat Like Me" (though that one at least implies that she's smart enough to want Sandi out of the Fashion Club). In "Lucky Strike," a substitute teacher even attempts to flirt with her, even going so far as to stroke her hair in class and this all still goes completely over Tiffany's head. Later on though, when thanks to Helen's meddling the said teacher is removed from the school due to "reasons" Tiffany remarked that she hoped that it wasn't his "Anguish acting up" And later in the episode when her class is told to write a 200 word essay on what they think "Romeo and Juliet" is about, Tiffany's horrified objection is "think?". Fanfic Stereotypes Clueless Tiffany The most common stereotype is Tiffany being dumb and talking slowly, as depicted in the show - examples are too numerous to list! Jewish Tiffany Because of her last name, Tiffany is usually seen as Jewish (or at least her parents are). The Blum-Deckler Option by Roentgen ran with this, depicting Tiffany's Singapore-Chinese mother marrying into the Blum-Deckler family and the two sets of relatives uneasily coexisting. Tiffany's entire religious side in the show is summed up in the (unintentionally) ironic comment she makes in "Dye! Dye! My Darling": "I love philosophy." Adopted Tiffany Also because of her last name and her Asian appearance, she is usually depicted as an adopted child. Her ethnic origins are debated but usually boil down to Chinese, Japanese, or Vietnamese. "Smarter Than She Seems" Tiffany Looking to expand on her character, some depict Tiffany as only pretending to be dumb, which if nothing else helps explain her earlier characterization. (Under this reading, it's targeted when Tiffany in "One Nut" responds to Daria asking her to read faster with "you made me lose my place") Examples include the JoeMerl drabble "Watch the Carnage," which ships her with Luhrman, and the twist endings of Kristen Bealer's "Don't Sweat the Mall Stuff" and Jim North's "The Latest Fashion." See also Bealer's "It's Like the Beginning of an Era" that reveals Tiffany used to speak quite fast and is deliberately slooowwwiiing dooowwwn in part to be passive-aggressive. CAP's post-canon romance "Breakfast at Tiffany's" presented Tiffany as speaking and thinking normally without any reason or twist. Housewife Tiffany Some authors have depicted Tiffany settling down and getting married. In Wouter Jaegers' "Art-I-Fact" she hooks up with Kevin after he ran her over with his car. The accident actually erasing her memories. Kevin, being very remorseful had been there at her side in the hospital where the two of them bond and eventually fall in love, marry and have a son. Jim North's friends (more than) series also has her becoming a housewife after falling in love with Ted DeWitt-Clinton. Tragic Tiffany In an alternative way to expand on her character, some writers give her a troubling backstory to explain why she's ended up as she has. This has become semi-common for Tiffany-centred fics. "The Blum-Deckler Option" establishes a messy family situation and that her father left. "Pretty" by JoeMerl also has Tiffany's father leaving, and boils down Tiffany's beauty obsession to trauma caused by that. Jim North's "tutor", which pairs Tiffany with Ted DeWitt-Clinton, dealt with her feeling stupid and parental neglect; her speech pattern was established as a way of stopping a bad stutter; his earlier fic "Not So Slow" has Tiffany struggling with severe mental illness, with people misinterpreting her attempt to avoid attention as her being slow. "After the Disaster" by Fhujeth_x had her suffer a car accident before starting high school. In a particularly melodramatic combination of this trope and Smarter Than She Looks, Roentgen's "Reclaimation" made Tiffany the victim of a deliberate attempt to make her 'pliant'. Pothead Tiffany A recurring fandom gag (played straight in "The Blum-Deckler Option") is the real reason Tiffany is the way she is, is a lot of weed. Fanfiction about Tiffany * Her First New Dress by HeirOfNorton * Not So Slow by Jim North * tutor by Jim North * Pretty by JoeMerl * The Blum-Deckler Option by Roentgen * It's Like the Beginning of an Era by Kristen Bealer * After the Disaster by Fhujeth_x * Breakfast at Tiffany's by CAP Trivia Tiffany's surname name was originally established in "The Invitation", as one of several people called Tiffany. It was only much later that it was revealed that was Tiffany Blum-Deckler. Misc. Trivia * In the Latin American dubbing, she was voiced by Mayra Arellano. External Links * "It's Only a Paper Moon," on the Daria Fandom Blog II Blum-Deckler, Tiffany